Passive foreign investment company

And the only thing to do really, we think, is to just deal with this head on and try and resolve it and not move into retirement with with this hanging over you, because if it does ever come down on you, it will be unpleasant, it will be scary, and it could be very, very expensive.

Number two, what's the second most common issue we see expats in America falling foul of? PFICs.

Okay, what is a PFIC? A PFIC is just a non-US collective investment.

So there are some exceptions, but they're very niche.

So again, I'm going to talk in absolutes, but just know there are occasionally carve-outs and exceptions and elections.

But assuming none of these have been made, assuming none of them have been selected, any non-US collective investment, a unit trust, an ETF, an investment trust, an OIC, et cetera, et cetera, These are considered in the US to be PFICs.

And PFICs have two problems.

One, each individual PFIC is required to fill out Form 8621.

And unfortunately, the answer is no. It's dictated by U.S. government rules.

There's something called PFIC, which stands for Passive Foreign Income.

That means that you cannot hold non-U.S. investment funds.

Okay, so the rules, the IRS rules in the U.S. do not allow green cardholders or U.S. citizens from holding them.